Had a wonderful weekend with the family, one of those lazing about weekends where things actually get done, time is spent with the kids, and where I head into a busy work week rested and energized. Yeah, those weekends don’t happen often, but I think I’m starting to figure out how to manage weekend family time better, and that is lending to a more relaxed and manageable me.

Erika decided to tackle pre-cooking a ton of wonderful food this weekend, making everything from cream of broccoli and potato squash soup, to stuffed pasta shells with spinach and ricotta, to easy lasagna tubes (so good!). She also made a huge batch of homemade pasta sauce to freeze as well. I helped by washing dishes. Yes, I’m actually pretty good at that.

While entertaining the kids, I also got caught up on some web-related stuff and watched a bunch of NFL wildcard games.

On Sunday morning, after Erika whipped up an awesome breakfast of spinach and feta omelettes, we decided to take the girls to a local park that had an ice rink poured where the summertime splash pad is located. Charlotte got skates for Christmas, and prior to Sunday, had never been skating before.

I on the other hand can’t get a skate around my right ankle since I shattered it playing highschool football (unless I get expensive, heat-molded skates), so Erika took Charlotte out onto the ice. I think all of Charlie’s gymnastic and dance training helped with her balance, as she picked up skating like a charm and barely fell. She did amazing for her first time out–and had a lot of fun too.

I spent time taking Claire and Maddy tobogganing, and dragging them around the park. I sure got a good workout from that. The twins also spent a lot of time “excavating snow stones” and placing them in their sled. Actually they did this for a very long time, totally content in digging up chunks of icy snow and stacking them up.

After Charlotte was done skating, she joined her sisters in snow demon making (I don’t call them angels).

Afterward, we treated the girls to lunch and then headed home to warm up.

Here is a really quick video I shot with our camera of Charlotte on the ice skates for the first time, and Claire and Maddy excavating “snow stones”.

What a great weekend.

With the Canadian dollar doing so well against the USD right now, I thought what a great time to purchase my WisCon 34 membership. The only thing I need to take care of is flights, as my hotel rooming situation is already taken care of.

Really looking forward to this convention as it’ll be my first time attending–and I’ve heard so many great things.

I hope to see some of you there in May.

I’ve been trying to think of a way to talk about this for a few days now, but I’m just not sure what to say really. I’ve been working on a new book on and off for a while now (codename: VIOLET); one that I got the idea for from my grandma years before her passing. I started working on it shortly after her death last year but due to acquiring an agent and working on polishing another book, I’ve set it aside.

Truth be told, I’ve been hesitant to start work on it again. I find excuses. Not because I don’t want to work on it–because I do. It’s a tough subject and definitely the hardest thing I’ve attempted to write. I’m directly tied to the subject matter; I have a vested interest beyond wanting to complete another book and sell it.

But the other night, while sleeping away, I had a several overlapping dreams. The last one shocked me awake. It was my grandma, sitting in her favourite rocking chair, holding a hardcover book. She had that little, sheepish grin on her face, the one she usually got when joking around, right after giggling the way she did. I was standing back from her, the edges of my vision all soft-focused.

She held out the book, showing it to me, her face bright and happy, the way she looked before illness aged her beyond recognition. It was a finished copy of the book I’d started in her honour. There was no cover art of anything, just the full title of the novel. She looked so proud.

I went to take a step forward, to look at the book and see what was inside, but she recoiled slightly. She shook her head, like I couldn’t see it. I reached out and as she held it up, the book turned to dust, sifting through her hands like ancient parchment exposed to air for too long.

As I scrambled to grab the disintegrating book, I looked up and saw my grandma’s face. She looked so sad, aging before my eyes to a state of near-death, to the way she looked when I held her hand as life escaped her body.

And then I woke up with a start.

The only way I’ve interpreted this dream is: get off your ass and write. This. Book.

Now.

So that’s what I’m doing. No more lazing about, no more excuses. Besides the fact that my agent wants me to write this book as quickly as possible, I’ve committed myself to doing so. This is a story that needs to be told.

This is a story I need to tell.

And so that is what I’m going to do. Nothing else is going to get in my way until the first draft of VIOLET is complete. I’ve got the memory of my grandma on my shoulder for this ride.

Most people know I’m pretty obsessed with the 80s. Like totally.

So when I got to watching the trailers for Hot Tub Time Machine I was like, OMG, I have to see this.

I’m not convinced that the movie is going to be stellar, or as crazy-hilarious as The Hangover, or even good for that matter–but I have hopes.

What do you think?

Finally. Y2K10 is here in all its glory.

I’ve been waiting for 2010 to start for some time, for a new decade of possibility to open its arms.

In fact, I’m so jazzed about the year + 10 ahead that I’m not sure how to actually bottle it up and spill it here for you.

If there has been any year in my life that I’ve looked forward to more than this one, I sure can’t remember. Have you ever had a feeling that a year is yours for the taking? That this is it, this is the one? That’s how I feel. Sure, that may sound cheesy or whatnot, but it’s true.

Y2K10 is mine for the taking so you’d best get out of my way.

I hope I can come back to this entry a year from now and reference it as a bullseye.

As for resolutions, well, I am not a huge fan of them. I mean, I don’t think they should be declared by oneself as gospel, because then you’re just going to subconsciously do everything and anything to avoid them. I prefer to lay them out as a foundation to build on. I look at where I need support or direction or inspiration and I put in the girders, pour the concrete. Seems to work rather well for me, so why change the formula now?

So without further ado, my Y2K10 resolutions:

• Friends/Family come first: This may sound obvious, but I mean the friends who will stick by you, those friends who would be at your funeral, who’d take a bullet for you. I refuse to chase anyone. If the friendship is one-sided, meaning I’m always in the drivers seat, well, it’s time to park the car. It’s nice to be a passenger sometimes.
• Read 1 chapter/30 pages per day: Yes, I mean read.  Before I play Xbox or retire for the night, I shall read. I miss it. Things were way too busy the last few years and I really slipped on my reading. I love to read (obviously), and I’ve missed it. If something happens that I can’t do it, no biggie (remember: resolution=foundation), but I’m going to damn well try.
• Back to basics: By this I mean going back to the things that I love, that shaped me as I grew up. Those gems from adolescence that I just don’t do or think I have time for. Such as watching those fun, silly genre movies of yore like Willow or The Last Starfighter. I miss the fun I had with those. And this also means re-reading some of the books that got me hooked on genre such as THE BELGARIAD.
• Sell a book: This is obvious.
• HAVE FUN: This is also obvious. But I will elaborate a little. By have fun, I simply mean just let what happens happen. Stress is a creativity killer. Most things are beyond one’s control, so it’s time to roll with the punches more. And for those things that are in my control, well, I’ll be the one throwing the punches.

There you have it. Pretty straightforward I think.

So to wrap this up, I want to wish you and yours a very Happy New Year and the very best in Y2K10!

Be naughty. =)

I’m rather glad 2009 is officially kaput now. It was a bit of a tumultuous rollercoaster to be honest, with few good things and a lot of, well, not so good.

I’m not going to get into all the crap, because really, it’s all behind me now and more or less personal. But I will say that 2009 had started with me burying my Grandma. Not a great way to start a new year, but I went on to dedicate 2009 to my grandma. I attribute all of the good things that happened last year to this dedication–finding representation from an awesome agent, meeting lots of wonderful new people, having a blast at conventions such Worldcon, polishing a book, laying the difficult groundwork for another, and starting work on a new project.

There were some great vacations too, such as the one I just got back from–taking my entire family to Disney World (photos here).

But overall, there was a storm cloud over my head for a lot of the year. That cloud is gone now, and I can see the sky once again.

I’m very much looking forward to basking in the sun’s rays once again as I plan out 2010, and enter a new decade of possibility.

Well, if I don’t have the fortune of running into the following zombified princesses…

Then I at least hope to run into these lovelies again…

Yes, that’s right, when I get up tomorrow morning I’m off with the family to Disney World!

Can’t wait for the warm weather and silly fun. And of course I will be taking lots of pics of my various exploits…and hopefully having a few drinks along my merry way.

And similar to most things I do, you can follow along via Twitter.

Back in a week!

I seem to have been away from blogging for a while now–so long in fact I don’t even know where to start…

So I will just say that I’m extremely busy with way too many things.

There, now that I’ve said that, I can get back into the swing o’ things.

Thanks for understanding. =)

Besides a stint of Left 4 Dead 2 on Tuesday night (zomgZOMBIESdiediedie), I’ve been consumed with revisions on one of my larger projects, codename: Fever. These are good revisions, polish revisions, which means no hair pulling or the reorganizing scenes. Just plucking a word here, moving a line there, tightening and cutting off the fat. Removing the superfluous.

Which has been fun. It has given me a chance to dive back in and get reacquainted with my characters. It’s also given me a chance to refocus. For a while I had been distracted by life and reality and numerous other things. My agent needs the revisions done sooner rather than later, which is great–it gives me a hard and fast deadline to work towards, which I thrive in. It allows me to easily cut out the distractions as well.

I even carry my iBook around in hopes of getting a moment to edit. Like last night. I had to pick up my daughter from her gymnastics. I got there early and had a few minutes to wait, so I popped open my iBook and revised by the dashboard light. I only got in about 15 minutes, but it was 15 minutes I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Today is going to be more of the same until I get these revisions done–hopefully wrapping them up next week.

And then it will be on to project: Violet once again.

I’m not sure if it’s the wintry weather and the slow death of autumn or the recent passing of WFC2009 (which I did not attend, regrettably), but I’ve been missing my friends from abroad lately. Well, more than usual anyway. I’ve countered this somewhat by confirming I will be at Wiscon 24 in May–which I’m very excited about since I’ve never been able to make it before.

I’ve also countered this sudden malaise by uploading a quick little video I shot while out in old town Montreal during Worldcon 2009. We were needing a break from the chaos of the con and decided to go cupcakery hunting and sightseeing.

We found cupcakes:

We found a place to eat them:

And we found a place to make a quick video:

Also, we were actually quick sober during the making of this film–unless you count being high on sugary cupcake goodness.

It wasn’t until later that we hit the tequila.